The Rabbit Factory

Tom Stechschulte is magnificent, the perfect reader for the imperfect bunch of zany, self-absorbed, and convincing characters in Larry Brown's tales of tangentially connected misfits in Memphis and northern Mississippi. There's a cop killer, a one-legged housekeeper for a Mafia don, a sex-starved wife whose husband worries about impotence, a hooker, a mentally marginal pet shop employee, and a few dogs that almost steal the show. These are just a few of the colorful cast Stechschulte consistently and accurately depicts. Intense and varied in his performance, he's clearly as involved in the absurdities, some sad, some hilarious, some both, as his appreciative listeners will be. Perhaps an A-minus for the novel, but certainly an A-plus for the narration. T.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine


Somebody is killing the cartoon characters at Lamaar Family Land in Los Angeles. And the customers, and the executives--even people who sport Lamaar logos or characters on their hats or watches in places like St. Louis and New York. Tom Stechschulte handles the voices of LAPD Detective Mike Lomax, his partner, who is always practicing his stand-up act, his family, and his juicy new girlfriend. James Jenner masterfully handles the characters on the dark side of the plot. They're all witty, if often eccentric and occasionally outright nuts--what's not to like? The story tears along, and each time the narrator changes, you think, "Oh good, him again." This is a wonderful production of a thoroughly entertaining book, somehow simultaneously sunny and "noir." B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

June 23, 2003
Grimly realistic, tragic-absurd and raunchy, Brown's latest novel returns to his deep South fictional territory and to the characters—poor, largely uneducated, hard-drinking, cigarette and dope smoking—that he portrays so well. This time he juggles a large cast with one thing in common: they're long-time losers whose paths intersect in or near Memphis. Arthur is nearly 70, impotent and fearful of losing his sexy younger wife, Helen. She tries to seduce teenaged Eric, a pet shop employee who fled his abusive father's rabbit factory—a metaphor for the uncaring world in which these people exist. Anjalee is a prostitute who smites the heart of Wayne, a navy boxer. Domino has survived a prison term and now works butchering meat for a gangster named Mr. Hamburger, who sells it to a man who owns lions. Trouble is, the body of one of Mr. Hamburger's victims turns up in the meat locker, which complicates Domino's extracurricular job dealing weed over the border in Mississippi. The plot includes several murders, lots of sex, domestic spats and plenty of action in bars. Even the violent scenes veer close to farce. Dogs figure prominently, one of them a pit bull named Jada Pickett. Miss Muffet, who is the housekeeper for one of the spoiled canines, has a plastic leg. Yet even with the advantage of Brown's keen eye for the absurdities of life and for the habits of people who live on the edge, the book fails to deliver the punch of his earlier works. Fay, his most accomplished novel to date, was darker, but one could identify with the protagonist. Here, the characters are all self-absorbed and incessantly whiny, and their obsessive rambling thoughts are recounted in numbing detail. Readers will understand well before the end that these sad lives will never go anywhere but down. Author tour.